


To Save A Life I Didn't Have

by AsagiStilinski



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Dark, Foxes, Grief/Mourning, Hunters & Hunting, Injury, Kitsune, Late at Night, M/M, Major Character Injury, Past Relationship(s), Polyamory, Protectiveness, Suicidal Thoughts, Werewolf Hunters, Werewolves, Wolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-11
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-11-15 07:41:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18069338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsagiStilinski/pseuds/AsagiStilinski
Summary: I went to the woods to die, and when I emerged I came aliveHe found himself there again, in the woods, with his gun and his greifAnd when he heard a scream, he found himself drawn to helping a helpless animalHe thought his life may end that night, he never expected it would change this much





	To Save A Life I Didn't Have

**Author's Note:**

> So I've started a new thing with some fun people in the YGO community, Prompt Sunday! This Sunday's prompt was "Mythology" and I... ofcourse went with werewolves
> 
> The title and inspiration of this one is from Hozier's "In The Woods Somewhere"

_Kisara...._

That name _haunted_ him

It plagued him

It hung in his mind like a ghost in an attic

He could still feel the chill left from her touch, or rather, left from the _absence_ of her touch

The night was freezing, despite it being spring, and he found himself dragging his jacket tighter around him as he stared up at the moon

His feet dangled off of the cliff, his fingers clutched tightly around the fabric of his jacket

The night felt... _wrong_

It felt wrong in all of the right ways

He reached into his pocket, his fingers grazing over the cold metal as he slowly drew the gun out into the open

The moon shone off of it like a ray of salvation, and somehow that lessened the the weight of it in his palm

Could he do it this time?

Could he join her now?

This wasn't the first time he had thought about it

Hell, this was nearly a weekly routine now, and each night, he grew more and more hollow

His breath was heavy, his throat was dry

His thumb dragged down slowly, clicking off the safety, as he stared down at the pistol

His arm began to rise, his finger looping into the familiar position around the trigger, his palm squeezed around the handle-

And then, as if a cry of damnation, a scream echoed through the woods, pained and terrified

He dropped the gun nearly on instinct, watching in pale white devastation as the weapon fell from his hand, from his lap, down into the woods below from his height on the cliff

Cursing loudly, he quickly rose to his feet, gritting his teeth and breifly contemplating going down after it, but....

There was another scream, and this time he didn't even think about it

He turned immediately and ran into the woods behind him, his breath heavy and thick, creating little puffs of white around him as he heaved down the cold night air

That scream... where was it?

Where was it....?

He decided to simply go in blind, there was no use in trying to find a direction at this point

His footfall was loud against the crunching leaves beneath him, his vision dependent on the bright light of the full moon, he searched

He searched and searched, and didn't know what he expected to find

What was he looking for?

A way to save his soul?

Redemption?

Was he searching to fix the mistake he made over a year ago?

Was he hoping to somehow go back in time and save _her_ by saving a complete stranger?

He didn't know....

But he searched, all the same

And then, suddenly, the sounds of breathing weren't entirely his own

Spinning on his heel, he looked down into the leaves, expecting to find a human woman laying there beneath him, but it wasn't human, nor a woman

There beneath him lay a beautifull red fox

It was utterly tiny, and shaken with fear

Eyes darker than the night sky it's self, and with little blonde streaks in it's fur, he had never seen anything quite like it....

The fox let out a quiet, desperate, squeak, and he wasn't sure if it was commanding him to go or begging him to stay

His eyes shifted down, along the length of the animal's body, and finally realized why the creature hadn't run away from him yet

There was a deep, horrible wound oozing blood down the side of one leg, and though he couldn't see the details of it from this angle, he could tell that that was the culprit keeping the animal in place

Slowly, he bent down, reaching a hand out and wrinkling his nose at the scream of protest that the little animal let out

"Be quiet before whatever attacked you comes back," he snapped, watching in surprise as the fox's ears flicked and then laid flat against his skull

Quiet, atleast, however

Heaving a sigh, he pulled his jacket off quickly, reaching it out towards the fox and pausing before the fabric could touch the bloodied fur

"If you bite me, I am _ending_ you," he threatened uselessly

Yet somehow, he felt better having said it out loud, hoping that perhaps the fox could sense his intention as he slowly wrapped the jacket around the animal's lower half, tying the sleeves tightly around the injured leg

It wasn't much, but he hoped it would atleast be enough to last until he could get the animal to a vet somewhere

Ofcourse, he wasn't sure if any vet was open this late, and if they were, if they would even take a fox...

Sure, emergency hospitals were open 24/7, but did they accept wild animals, or just dogs and cats?

Shaking his head, he hurried to take his phone from his pocket and pull up the internet browser

The cold of the night air was starting to make his fingers tremble, but he tapped away on the screen with flawless precision anyway, his eyes scanning down the list of results with frustration and dissatisfaction

"Come on.... there has to be _some_ idiot in this country keeping a fox as a pet..." he muttered to himself

He knew he couldn't just keep waiting, if all else failed, he'd just go to the nearest emergency clinic and throw money at people until they either agreed to fix the fox's leg or pointed him in the direction of someplace that would

_Every Animal Emergency Clinic, Northern Domino City_

It was a half hour drive but... more than worth it

Course of action decided, he put his phone back in his pocket, only to hear the fox below starting to holler again, a terrible, terrified screeching leaving the little animal's throat

"Hush, hush, I'm going to help you, you have to be quiet," he hissed

He wasn't sure what attacked the fox, but if he kept screaming like that, there would be no doubt that the attacker would find them again...

Ofcourse, it was as this thought was running through his mind, as he reached down to pick the fox up, that ice cold realization hit him, and he began to realize what had "attacked" the animal on the ground

There was a familiar clicking sound behind him, and his heart sank into his stomach as he turned around, staring down the barrel of a gun

"Oh, you're going to help alright, but if you want to keep your life, it will be _me_ you help, not that filthy thing,"

The man behind him was pale, with long white hair, and a sickening grin on his face

He looked all too happy to be pointing a gun at the taller man, and quickly, the puzzle peices fell into place

It wasn't a bite or a claw mark on the fox's leg, it was a bullet wound

And he was willing to bet that _this_ freak of nature was the culprit

"Step aside, the fox is mine," he said coldly, voice full of disgusting delight

"You know, if there's one thing I hate more than anything, it's a coward who enjoys hurting and killing helpless creatures because they don't have big enough balls to pick on someone their own size," he sneered

The stranger laughed- or, perhaps more accurately, cackled- and stepped forward, his eyes practically manic with depraved joy

"You fool.... you have no idea what you're protecting! You've got no clue what that thing is!"

"I know that it's hurt, and that you're trying to kill it, that's all I care about,"

The stranger let out a snicker, opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off promptly

"You've made a mistake, you know,"

"Oh? And what's that?"

"You don't know who I am,"

This actually brought a breif flash of confusion across the stranger's face, though he still looked far too confident

"Why should I care who you are?"

"Because, I'm Seto Kaiba, and I step aside for _no one_ ,"

That was all he needed to say before launching forward, his hand wrapping around the stranger's wrist as he quickly twisted his arm, attempting to wrestle the gun away, but it didn't go as planned

The trigger was pulled in the scuffle, and Seto went horribly, terribly still....

Blood rose through his throat, leaked out of his mouth, and he felt himself waver

He could hear a commotion behind him, his vision starting to blur, but he swore....

He _swore_ , before he fell to the ground, that he saw something behind the stranger

He saw red eyes

He saw red eyes....

And black fur.....

He saw... _a **wolf**_

 

~+~

 

The breath in his chest ached, he gulped it down anyway

Forcing his eyes open, he found himself sitting up, staring up at the the night sky and wondering breifly if this was the same night or not

He could feel the pain radiating from his side, assuming that's where the bullet went, and looked down, spotting an amateur bandaging there, confirming what he had just assumed

Swallowing tightly, he forced himself to his feet, shoving the blanket off of him and grabbing his shirt and jacket from where they had just been laying in the dirt, starting to put them on with as much dexterity as he could muster, what with the burning pain in his side

There was a campfire of sorts burning across from him, but no other sign of anyone else staying there...

Where was he?

It looked like the same woods from before....

But who had helped him? And why?

And _where was that fox?_

He took another step, swallowing dryly and reaching into his pocket, relieved to find his phone still there

He hurried to pull it out but was annoyed to find that he had no signal

_Ofcourse_

Eyes narrowed, he started walking through the woods, determined to find out what had happened to the fox, and then to get the hell out of here before any other crazy hunters decided to use him as target practice

The problem with the woods, Seto decided, five minutes into walking, was that everything looked the same

The same trees, the same bushes, the same dirt...

He didn't know if he was going the right way or the wrong way or just wandering around in circles

Annoyed, he picked up the pace a little, keeping his eyes on the ground for any sign of the fox, or atleast some blood that may indicate he was in the right spot...

A few minutes into his search, however, he started to feel an odd prickling, pins-and-needles feeling in his back...

As if he was being _watched_

Spinning on his heel, his heart racing a little bit faster and harder than earlier, he found with frustration that the spot behind him was bare

There was no one, not even a squirrel

Gritting his teeth, he kept on

He kept walking

But the further he went and the longer he walked, the more he felt that same uneasy, unnerving sensation, that someone- or some _thing_ \- was watching him

His eyes narrowed, his teeth gritted, he kept walking along the trail

But that feeling didn't fade

In fact, if anything, it only grew worse

This sensation was too much, it was too surreal, and he was starting to feel himself grow paranoid

"Where are you!?" he finally shouted, assuming it was the hunter, having come back for him

"Show yourself!!"

The trees rattled, the twigs snapped, and he hurriedly turned to his left, eyes settling on a set of bright, red eyes, staring out at him from the bushes

The _same_ red eyes from earlier that evening....

Swallowing tightly, he steeled himself, watching as a beautifull, slender black wolf stepped out of the brush

So he _had_ seen a wolf charge at that hunter earlier....

The creature stepped forward

Once

Twice

Three times

But Seto didn't move

He didn't step back or move away

He did nothing but hold his ground as the wolf stalked forward, closer and closer, and for a moment, a short moment, they merely stared at eachother

Red meeting blue

Crimson and cobalt

Bright burning fires and deep settling seas

A twig snapped in the distance, and the wolf's attention perked, running off towards the sound before Seto could beg for it to stop

Ofcourse, that in it's self rose a flurry of questions

Why would he want the wolf to stop? Why would he want it to stay there with him?

And perhaps most importantly, why did he think the wolf would have listened even if he _had_ been able to call out for the animal to do so?

Cursing under his breath, he found himself with three choices before him

1\. Chase the wolf

A stupid idea really, what would he gain from that?

2\. Forget all of this and go home- or better yet, go to a hospital and get his freaking bullet wound examined

By far the smartest choice, if a bit difficult, what with his being lost

Or 3. Search for his missing gun

He still needed it, he felt, he still might....

Resolving on the last, he started through the woods once again

The problem with going to the hospital, he resolved as he walked, was that he would have to tell them how he got shot

And what was he supposed to say to that?

 _"I found an injured fox wile I was out in the woods contemplating suicide and when some hunter tried to kill it I tackled him and got shot? Oh by the way, some complete stranger bandaged me up and I don't know who, who the hunter was, or where to find either of them"_?

There were so many things wrong with that story that he couldn't even count them all

No, most certainly, he'd have to get his private physician to fix his wound, and if he was already going to wait on the guy to get up- as it was almost certainly past midnight now, atleast- and get to him, he might as well take the time to find his gun

Ofcourse that was tantamount to looking for a needle in a haystack, trying to find something so small out here in the woods in the dark....

He might be looking all night

Maybe he'd be better off just trying to find a signal for his phone, call for someone to come an find him

He was probably losing his mind thanks to an injury-induced fever, this was all crazy after all, trying to hunt for a gun in the middle of the night in the woods, thinking that he had some weird ... psychic connection to a wolf or some other crazy shit like that

He was losing his mind

He needed to just forget it all and call someone before he lost too much blood...

How ironic, he had been contemplating killing himself earlier, and now that death was a real possibility, he was struggling to save himself

How hypocritical of him

All the same, he grabbed his phone from his pocket again, started to walk back, looking for a signal... and noticed the cliff up above......

If the cliff was up there, then ... did that mean that he had somehow gotten down from the higher part of the woods?

But how was that even possible? The cliff was _atleast_ twenty feet off the ground, how....?

He decided not to dwell on it for now, instead rushing towards it and starting to search the ground

Now that he knew where he was, he knew that his gun would be nearby, he could do this.... he could do it...

It took longer than he had wanted, and he had probably reopened his wound by the time he was done, but finally, after what felt like hours of searching, he could see the glint of the moonlight ahead of him and sprinted a few feet forward, bending down and feeling a sense of peace wash over him as he took the heavy metal object into his hand again and finally released a breath

Well, that was one miracle down

Now if he could just find that fox....

He had always loved animals, he found them so much better and easier to deal with than humans

He and Kisara had even talked about opening up an animal sanctuary, they had wanted to so badly... to help hurt and abandoned animals, and the thought of that poor fox, having been shot mercilessly by some asshole hunter who just wanted a trophy, laying out there in the woods dying with his jacket wrapped around it- ...

Wait.... his jacket!

Why had he not realized it before!?

The jacket had been wrapped around the fox, so whoever patched him up....

Red hot anger poured through his veins, he could practically taste it boiling in his blood, fury pounding through every pulse of his heartbeat as he spun on his heel and started back to the "campsite", if you could even call it that

If he had his jacket back, that meant that poor fox was probably.....

And that meant that the hunter was probably the one who had patched him up to begin with

The longer he ran, the more angry he grew

The harder he breathed, the hotter his blood boiled

He was nearly blinded by rage as he stomped through the forest, his feet leading the way, not bothering to pay any mind to his surroundings now

He could feel the wound officially reopening now as he sprinted back to the campfire, but he didn't care, maybe it was the fever, maybe it was the blood loss, maybe it was the strange, strange events of the night...

Maybe he didn't even _care_ what it was

He wasn't himself, alteast, he didn't think that he was

It was hard to tell, honestly

But now all that mattered was justifying and satisfying his anger

Blood trickled at a slow and even stream down his side, but he didn't care

His legs trembled as he ran, but he didn't care

He could see the fire burning up ahead, and that was all the motivation he needed to kick up the pace and force himself harder, force himself to finish running the distance

He reached out, one hand gripping the tree ahead of him as he finally arrived back in the small clearing he had awoken in, a snarl on his face as he stared at the person there on the ground

It wasn't the same hunter from before, that was for sure

He was so much smaller, petite, still pale, with big violet eyes and crazy three-toned hair, black and blonde and purple...

He was wrapped in the blanket that Seto had been in earlier, staring listlessly at the fire, until he looked up and saw the other's face that is

Instantly, he stood, opened his mouth to speak, but Seto didn't care

He raised the gun, much to the stranger's surprise, his hand shaking, his head spinning, everything was so.... so..... _muddled_

His head was so heavy and foggy, it felt like it weighed a million tons, his hands were shaking, but all he could feel, all he could really, _really_ feel, was _anger_

"You.... you killed that fox... didn't you?"

The stranger seemed legitimately shocked, immediately shaking his head, his breathing heavier, shakier, his entire body trembling

"No... no I didn't-!"

There was a growling then, behind him, and when Seto turned, he saw the wolf once more

The pleasant, almost peacefull expression he had seen on the wolf's face earlier that night was gone now, replaced by nothing but fury and hatred

For the longest moment, it seemed, Seto stared at the wolf, and as it became increasingly clear that he wasn't going to shoot the animal, the creature stepped forward

Closer

Closer

And then, in a strangely fluid movement, the steps went from four-legged, to two

The beast rose up on two legs

Paws became feet

Fur shed around him in massive chunks as his body stretched and contorted and reformed, and by the time Seto's eyes traveled up to the wolf's face, the creature was no longer a wolf at all

He was a man

A beautifull man, with soft copper skin, the same black-blonde-red toned hair style that the other stranger had, and a set of peircing red eyes

Seto stood in disbeleif

He stared in disbeleif

He couldn't.... believe that this was real

Was he imagining things?

Was he hallucinating?

He spun around suddenly, staring at the smaller, paler man, and noticing for the first time that the blanket he was wrapped in carefully wrapped around only certain parts of his body

One leg was left exposed, with bandages wrapped around his lower thigh.... _the exact place of the fox's wound_

Seto swayed

His vision blurred

And for a moment, as the night sky began to consume him, he thought of Kisara

 

~+~

 

This time when Seto woke, he woke in a bed, in a cabin

Everything was sore and aching, everything was ....

He didn't know....

He could remember bits and peices about what had happened beforehand, but he wondered how much of it had really happened and how much was just a fever dream

How much was there to this story in reality, and how much had he just hallucinated?

He pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head slowly

He heard the door to the bedroom open and flickered his gaze up towards the intruder

It was the paler man from earlier, walking towards him, surprisingly without a limp, and sitting down on the foot of the bed

"How much of that ... wolf and fox thing was real, and how much of it did I just imagine?"

"Well, if you're asking if we're really shapeshifters..."

He groaned, closing his eyes slowly and biting his lip

Ofcourse.... he should have known better than to believe that much of that was just his hallucinations....

"Where am I?"

That seemed to take the smaller man back a little bit, evidentally thrown off by the question

"Um... Atem and I ... we have a cabin in the woods, not too far away from where our campsite was,"

"I see..."

"You're ... surprisingly calm about the shapeshifter thing," the smaller man added slowly

Seto inhaled deeply, closing his eyes for the breifest of moments before settling them on the ceiling

"I was engaged to be married, about a year ago, my bride-to-be, Kisara..... she was like you,"

"A- .. a kitsune?"

"No, a shapeshifter, she could turn into a dragon, I don't know if that's ... a specific species or ... anyway, she was an orphan, she was the only one of her kind that she knew of, and the only one that I knew of, for that matter, I think we both knew logically that she wasn't alone out there, but ... we never tried to find others, maybe that was a mistake, I don't know.... but I knew about her gift, and I loved her just as much with it as I would have without it,"

"I'm... sorry, but .. you're using the past tense, should I assume-"

"She's dead, yes," he replied quickly, effectively quieting the stranger

"I couldn't save her... when she needed me most, I wasn't there for her.... every month, three nights after the full moon, she would go out into the woods to shapeshift... she didn't like doing it any other time, she said it was too risky to do it more often and that the full moon 'brings out the crazies', I guess she was right, some part of her ... acted on instinct, we were going on a trip right before our wedding, just she and I.... it was like a pre-honeymoon, we were scouting locations for the ceremony, not wanting to have it in the city..... I scheduled it for the week directly after the full moon because it was the only time I could take an entire week off of work on such short notice, so, knowing our predicament, she decided to shift early that month.... on the full moon, it just so happens that I was running late to meet her that night, I don't even remember why.... but when I got to the woods, right as I started to approach our usual location, I heard her scream, when I found her, it was already too late, there was a man standing over her, gun still smoking, she had been shifted when he shot her, as evidenced by the way I found her body, nude with her scales starting to vanish before my very eyes... I tracked him down, I scoured the woods until I caught up with him, I got a picture of him on my phone and... after that I bought my gun, I killed him three days later,"

"Is that why you were so desperate to protect Yugi?"

Glancing up, Seto saw a new face in the door way- the face of the wolf, now in his human form, evidently

"I guess that's part of it, but if you're implying I wouldn't have tried to help him otherwise, you're wrong,"

"I never implied any such thing," the wolf promised as he stepped fully into the room, sitting next to the fox- Yugi- on the end of the bed

"It... makes sense, what happened," Yugi said quietly

"I'm sure you know the stories abut werewolves and the full moon... because of that, hunters- hunters of our kind- practically stake out wooded areas every month during that time, the woods must have been crawling with hunters then, when your fiance' was murdered,"

"Apparently so, I never knew what his motivation was for killing her, I just... assumed that he was like most assholes, shooting what he didn't understand, seems I was atleast partly right,"

"It seems so," Atem, the wolf, confirmed with a nod

"I wish to thank you, formally, for protecting my partner last night, without you he would not have survived,"

"I was shot with Foxglove, it's especially poisonous to anyone with fox genes, like werefoxes, kumiho, kitsune... think of it as our personal wolfsbane, so.. my magic was pretty much useless until the poison was out of my system,"

"And I take it that you're responsible for healing me once it was, in fact, out of your system?"

The two went quiet suddenly, and Seto came to the unsettling realization that things wouldn't be that easy

"Whatever it is you're not telling me, spit it out now,"

"Well- .... Yugi was still healing when you passed out... and you had lost so much blood.. it must have been adrenaline keeping you going for so long without suffering more pain..."

"Go on,"

Another pause, breif, before Atem continued

"He couldn't heal you.... so I had to,"

"Why do I feel so deeply that this is about to come with a catch?"

The wolf hung his head, and, as if he needed any more proof, Seto came to the conclusion that he was right

"Funny, I've never heard of werewolves having healing magic, so let me guess, I'm one of you now?"

"It isn't so bad," Atem said quickly

"I was born this way, and... yes, it is difficult, but I would not have it any other way, truly,"

Seto nodded slowly, staring at the wolf for another moment before swinging his legs out of bed

"So, what, you're my Alpha now?"

"Something like that.... but I'd really prefer to think of you as my partner, that's... how Yugi and I are, well we're more than that really..."

"Lovers, I get it,"

"We are a small pack, but we're growing, and we will make sure you have a home with us, we will protect you, Seto Kaiba, just as you have protected us,"

"I'm going to do you a favor and assume you know my name by my ID or my celebrity status," the brunette huffed, pushing himself to his feet and spotting the open bathroom door, walking through it slowly and staring into the mirror hanging over the sink

"Actually, Yugi told me, he said you shouted it like a badge of honor when you were defending him from that hunter," Atem chuckled

"I think we could be a great team, the three of us," he noted, though he didn't get up from his place on the bed

"A team, or a couple?"

"... They don't have to be mutually exclusive," Yugi offered

Seto scoffed, but ... somehow he found himself unbothered by this

There was something oddly ... not unsettling about the idea of being involved with those two

Something oddly _right_ about not being human any longer

Something about all of this, this entire situation- as bizarre as it was- that seemed... _right_

"Hunters..... do we hunt them back?"

"Sometimes, only when necessary to protect ourselves," Atem's voice called from the bedroom

And slowly, slightly, Seto found his lips turning upwards, into a smirk, his eyes filled with fire in determination as he stared into the mirror

 _'Kisara...'_ he thought, his eyes beginning to flicker

_'Wait for me, I'm not done yet, I'm not done here, I have things to do.... forgive me, but this is what I'm meant to do, this is where I'm meant to be, **who** I'm meant to be,'_

Slowly, the blue of his irises began to fade, began to lighten

_'I found what I'm supposed to do, I found who I'm supposed to be with, who I'm supposed to be, atleast... for now,'_

And finally, his eyes snapped from blue, to gold

_'I found something, in the woods somewhere.....'_

 

 

 

 

  


GORGEOUS art done by the amazing venom_for_free!!


End file.
